Center for History maintains Rockne lore

Knute Rockne and Notre Dame football are synonymous. In the school year of 1887-1888, Michigan players came to campus to give their friendly rivals the first learning session of new football as played in the Midwest. That session ended in a game of sorts, Michigan beating their pupils, 8-0, before a campus luncheon and carriage rides to Niles to catch the train to Chicago where the boys from Ann Arbor would play a Saturday game against Harvard. A bit more than three months later, and in that same school year, Rockne was born (March 3, 1888) in Voss, Norway. He was about seven weeks old when the two teams met in South Bend for a pair of late-April games. That link of Notre Dame football and Rockne will become apparent in the Center for the History's tribute to the famed coach when it opens on May 27. The Center for History is seeking all sorts of memorabilia or remembrances of Rockne. If you know of collectors or other fans who have such items, contact George Garner at the Center (574-235-9664). In his footsteps Phil Krause, the youngest son of Moose Krause, the long-time and revered Notre Dame athletic director, is following in his father's footsteps as the new president of the Edward ""Moose'' Krause Hall of Fame chapter. In keeping with the 30-plus years of the chapter, Krause will present awards to a sizable group of high school football players at the chapter's annual dinner on Thursday at St. Hedwig's Memorial Center in South Bend. Scholarship chairman Brian Boulac again has selected an outstanding group of 43 nominees for the chapter's awards. Players from 15 teams were nominated by their coaches for the awards. Competition for the honors is intense, but only the top scholars are named. Schools such as Elkhart Central and South Bend schools. Riley, Washington and John Adams had no candidates for the awards, although Clay, Mishawaka, Marian and St. Joseph's made the coveted list. Nor did state champion NorthWood, a group that lived up to the team concept. Although the Chapter has been named for Moose since 1979, it started as the South Bend chapter. When a member was introduced at a Hall of Fame luncheon that year, he proudly announced that he was "a member of the Edward 'Moose' Krause chapter of South Bend.'' The audience reacted with cheers for Krause, who then was a member of the Hall of Fame Honor Court. When the chapter members returned home, they quickly renamed the chapter. To this day, the chapter is highly recognized because of its association with Krause. Now the name lives on in the chapter. Invitations to the dinner were mailed in the past week and should be returned as quickly as possible. In its early years, the dinner was scheduled on the eve of the Blue-Gold spring game at Notre Dame. Fans who attended the game could hear coaches assess the talents of the spring rosters, but for the last few seasons, an on-campus dinner for the athletes and coaches has interfered and the chapter dinner was moved to Thursday. To reach Joe Doyle: Doyleinc@sbcglobal. net